Thursday, April 30, 2009

Bags and Alcohol





Estelle and fashion designer Jonathan Kelsey have collaborated on the creation of a new luxury overnight bag - The Belvie. Belvedere Vodka has handpicked this creative duo to celebrate the release of its latest creation, the Belvedere Black Raspberry, for which Jonathan has designed the glorious Belvie Bag.

This oversized tote is handmade with cream and gold Italian leather and features a delicious, hand-dipped raspberry coloured suede lining. Estelle has not only lent her (stunning) face to The Belvie’s campaign, but was also Jonathan’s inspiration behind its design.





Intel's Pain Party !

The worse the economy gets, the faster the chip giant plans to move.

BURLINGAME, Calif. -- The economy is in the tank. PC sales are in a funk. And Intel shares have lost more than a third of their value over the past year. So why is Stacy Smith, the chip giant's chief financial officer, smiling?

Hey, you would too if you had $3.5 billion in cash, $4.2 billion in short-term securities, a business with a gross margin of 46% after getting hammered by a recession and a plan to spend billions to upgrade your factories to crank out better products. Sales, meanwhile, are better than they were. "The best sign is what's happening on our order desk," Smith says.

In short, we've now reached the moment the dudes at Intel live for : an opportunity to push forward as competitors are struggling to catch their breath.

Intel's management team will get a little bit of vindication, too, when they invite investors to Santa Clara, Calif., for the company's analyst day next month. Last year, Intel was selling skeptics on the need to begin selling radically cheaper processors. 

Twelve months and one stock-market collapse later, Intel's plan looks smart. Sales of PCs have nosedived, but consumers are snapping up the cheap, Web-friendly notebooks ASUS, Hewlett-Packard and Dell are building around Intel's Atom. "The netbook phenomenon even caught us a little by surprise," Smith says.

Still, after Intel successfully called its shot last year, investors will be paying close attention as Smith outlines this year's big bet--and it's a doozy. Intel plans to spend roughly $7 billion to upgrade its fabs this year, allowing it to crank out processors with features 32 nanometers wide. 

If demand is strong, that could allow Intel to command a premium price for chips built using a process technology its competitors can't match. If demand fades, Intel will take more fabs offline so they can upgrade them to the new process technology more quickly.

In other words: The tougher the economy gets, the tougher Intel gets. "We're going to move as fast as possible to get as much of our capacity as possible on 32 nanometers."

And that will only help Intel move more quickly to its next big opportunity. The plan: shrink the x86 processor design now powering servers and desktop computers enough to assault the market for mobile phones, unlocking a market for Intel many times the size of the netbook market it has conquered.

To be sure, Smith says Intel's push into the smart-phone market will look very different than its drive into netbooks. Intel was able to swallow most of the netbook market in a single gulp, since its Atom processor was able to deliver, almost immediately, the power and energy efficiency needed to run the scaled-down notebook computers.

With smart phones, by contrast, Intel's processors won't play in the entire market at the same time. Intel's strategy hinges on using its process technology to shrink its powerful chips down to a smaller size, making them cheaper and more energy efficient.

So while Intel will begin nibbling at the high end of that market by year-end, it will have to wait two years until it begins cranking out processors with features just 22 nanometers wide for more mainstream phones.

That will give Intel's competitors time. Shares of rival Advanced Micro Devices, for example, have rebounded sharply this year after it shed its capital-sucking chip fabs. Samsung, Texas Instruments and the pack of companies building processors for mobile phones based on ARM's mobile processor designs, meanwhile, are poking into the market for netbook computers.

The worse the economy gets, however, the faster Intel will shrink its processors, and the less money competitors will have to keep up. "Making those investments into the downturn is a huge competitive advantage, and it's one our competitors can't make," Smith says.

So, what can Intel's competitors do? Hope the economy gets better. Fast.


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Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Michelle Obama - The Most Beautiful Women On People Magazine

MICHELLE Obama has been included in US magazine People's list of 100 most beautiful people, alongside cancer survivor, actor Christina Applegate, and Twilight heart-throb Robert Pattinson.


The First Lady, who has achieved celebrity status and wowed the world as a fashion icon, made the list for the first time. 

"I had a father and a brother who thought I was beautiful, and they made me feel that way every single day," Obama told the magazine. 

"I grew up with very strong male role models who thought I was smart and fast and funny, so I heard that a lot. 

"I know that there are many young girls who don't hear it. But I was fortunate," she said. 

Naked Bust Sculpture Of Michelle Obama ..

Applegate, 37, the star of the TV show Samantha Who?, won admiration for going public last year about her breast diagnosis and later underwent a double mastectomy. 

The actress, who has since undergone reconstructive breast surgery, told People it was hard to look at herself naked. 

"You don't look the same anymore and you never will. A part of you is gone ... It's a decision that you made to save your life," she said. 

It was Applegate's third appearance on the People list. 

Pattinson's vampire-loving co-star Kristen Stewart, teen music idols Nick and Joe Jonas and Slumdog Millionaire star Dev Patel also made the coveted list for the first time, in the celebrity magazine's annual issue that hits newsstands on Friday. 

Pattinson, 22, who has a huge teen girl following after appearing in the Twilight movie blockbuster, said he didn't quite understand his heartthrob status. 

"I don't get it. It's funny, you look the same for years and no one ever mentions it. Then suddenly it's a big deal," he told People. 

Also included on the list in a "Barack's Beauties" section were White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and others. 

The 100 list also included old favorites George Clooney, Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt and Halle Berry. 

Some of the celebrities, including actress Eva Mendes and supermodel Cindy Crawford appeared in a "Stars Without Makeup" section in which they were photographed wearing no make-up for their close-ups.


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Månadens Plagg

Jag har bestämt mig för att Aprils plagg är trasiga jeans. Det är grymt snyggt och passar perfekt till allt och på alla nu på våren. Det behöver inte kosta så mycket heller, det är bara att dra fram ett par gamla jeans ur garderoben och börja klippa, kolla bara in Firgie.
Firgie sattsar på rymdbriller och snygga trasiga jeans. :)

Wide Angle - Top 10 Animals That Carry Flu

Health organizations worldwide are struggling to contain a swine flu outbreak that has killed at least 149 people in Mexico and sickened many more throughout the world, including in the United States, Europe and New Zealand. U.S. cases have now been reported across the country, with victims in California, Kansas, New York, Ohio and Texas.
Flu was first found among pigs in 1930. Over subsequent decades, health experts have identified influenza viruses in several other species as well. But which animals can pass such viruses on to people? You might be surprised by our top 10 list.


1. Chicken

Avian flu may not be the headline-maker now, but it has caused hundreds of human deaths over just the past decade, with chickens being the most common source of contagion.
"Many birds are susceptible to influenza strains that may transmit to humans, but butchering, handling and other forms of close contact heighten the risk," April Johnson told Discovery News. Johnson is an assistant professor of epidemiology and public health in the Purdue University School of Veterinary Medicine's Department of Comparative Pathobiology. "The H5N1 avian virus continues to be of concern because 60 percent of all humans who have contracted this illness died after becoming infected."

2. Pig

Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has long warned that "pigs play a role in transmitting influenza virus to humans." Earlier reported cases, however, mostly involved agricultural workers, or others who were in close direct contact with pigs. A child on a communal farm in Canada, for example, came down with the swine flu in 2006.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has been monitoring swine flu for some time as well, since pigs can be infected with human and avian viruses, in addition to their own pig-specific germs.
If an infection of more than one virus occurs simultaneously, "recombination may occur," Jean-Pierre Vaillancourt, a professor of veterinary medicine at the University of Montreal, told Discovery News. He explained that the latest strain appears to consist of "a virus that's 80 percent swine, with the rest being a mixture of avian and human viruses."
Although world leaders, such as President Barack Obama, are urging "concern" and not alarm over the outbreak, the potential for pandemic exists, experts have informed Discovery News, since the disease is now spreading from person to person.

3. Duck

Ducks are often raised for their meat, especially in Asia. Health experts, therefore, often monitor duck illnesses in China, Hong Kong, Thailand, Vietnam and other Asian countries that have experienced avian flu outbreaks.
"Ducks are more considered as carriers, however, than as direct threats," said Johnson, who explained that ducks seem less likely to spread influenza to humans, but that they can infect other animals. Researchers in Mexico have not ruled out the possibility that a bird, such as a chicken or duck, was the original source of the latest outbreak, which could have jumped to pigs and then humans.

4. Goose

Both wild and domestic geese have been known to contract the infamous H5N1 virus.
The birds' broad ranges can pose a problem: "These birds can fly 1,000 miles a day at maximum," explained Yi Guan, of the University of Hong Kong, China. If geese raised for poultry come into contact with infected wild geese, the risk of influenza spreading to humans increases. Most cases involving geese began with poultry workers in Asian countries who had direct contact with sick or dead birds.

5. Turkey

While not all birds can catch the flu, most are susceptible to Type A influenza that may spread to humans. Turkeys are no exception. Earlier this year, in fact, an H5 avian influenza virus surfaced on a turkey farm in southern British Columbia. It was quickly contained. Nevertheless, tens of thousands of turkeys have been slaughtered in Canada and elsewhere when such infections have been identified.
In 2004, for example, British Columbia's Fraser River Valley experienced an outbreak that affected 40 commercial farms and led to the culling of 17 million birds, according to the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy.
Suppliers maintain rigid guidelines to ensure public safety. "We often criticize factory farms, but in this case modern production has helped to reduce direct contact with animals, thus staving off infections," Vaillancourt told Discovery News. "In Asia and Mexico, many families live with their poultry and other animals raised for food, so they remain in close proximity to them."

6. Horse

According to the CDC, horses too can become infected with Type A influenza viruses.
"People with horses must handle them a lot, particularly around the facial area," said Marie Gramer, an assistant clinical professor of veterinary population medicine at the University of Minnesota's College of Veterinary Medicine. "When horses suffer from an influenza virus, they can cough, sneeze and have a runny nose just like we do."
"What's coughed out," she added, is of less risk to humans than avian germs, "because most pathogens that infect horses become more species-specific."

7. Dog

In 2004, cases of an unknown respiratory illness in dogs, initially racing greyhounds, were reported to the CDC. An investigation showed that this respiratory illness was caused by the equine influenza A H3N8 virus.
Scientists believe that this virus jumped from horses to dogs, and can now spread from dog to dog, leading to the canine-specific H3N8 virus. Experts consider the strain to be "a newly emerging pathogen in the dog population."
If it jumped from horses to dogs, could it move from dogs to humans?
"It's possible, but it would need a perfect storm," Gramer said. "The moment of transfer would have to involve the right person, the right place, the right animal and the right time."

8. Cat

Cats, like dogs, enjoy close contact with people. While most experts believe that simple hand-washing can eliminate the risk of obtaining diseases from pets, there is a possibility that both dogs and cats could spread a recombined form of avian influenza to humans.
"Cases of tigers and domesticated cats coming down with avian flu have been reported overseas," Johnson told Discovery News. "In most, if not all, cases, I believe, the animals had consumed dead infected chickens or other birds." The easiest way to stave off such risks would be to monitor pets so they don't eat birds or any other wild, potentially infected prey.

9. Seal

While no "seal flu" has been known to spread to humans, the marine mammals can become infected with Type A influenza viruses. And Vaillancourt said other diseases have crossed the human-seal species line.
"Some populations consisting of people who eat raw seal meat have been diagnosed with toxic parasitic illnesses," he said. "We've done studies that show cooking reduces nearly all of this problem."

10. Whale

Could a whale flu be in our future? Whales can suffer from influenza, probably by catching germs spread by bird waste. In theory, people could be exposed to and infected by the virus if they came in close contact with infected whales or poorly cooked whale meat. But the risk of that happening, not surprisingly, is low.
"It's really unlikely, because the ocean tends to dilute things," Gramer said. "Again, such a scenario would need a perfect storm since, as it stands, wild waterfowl, like seagulls, poop out the virus, which then has a slim chance of infecting whales."



Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Hot Bikini Babes For A1GP Race

HERE’S a classy chassis or two – covered not by sheet metal or carbon fibre, but just skimpy BIKINIS.
Yes, it’s A1GP time in Britain.

And that can only mean one thing – loads of beautiful babes gracing the curves and hillocks of Brands Hatch.

These racy ladies are the finalists of the Miss TW Steel Great Britain contest, which will be held amid all the A1GP racing action at the Kent circuit on Sunday.

Watchmakers TW Steel, the series’ official timekeepers, run a beauty contest at each event.











The winners from each country will fight it out for the overall title in London in June.

Yours truly will be among the judges to find Britain’s best at the weekend. I know...it’s a tough job. But someone has to do it.


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Top 5 Sexiest Jobs That Attract Women

We all want those really high-powered, super cool, crazy paying jobs that attract the ladies. Unfortunately most of those occupations come with tremendous amounts of pressure and stress which can keep you from enjoying all the women you should be getting because of your title. Here are a few career paths you may want to consider if you're more interested in scoring than you are in working hard, worrying, or contributing anything to society.  
Also, let us know if you have something new coolest jobs in your mind that can attract women ....

PLAYING FOR THE WASHINGTON NATIONALS

In a 2007 poll conducted by Career Builder.com, "professional athlete" came in third among the 10 sexiest jobs. Although professional athletes usually have to deal with extreme levels of pressure created by their fans and the media, there are some exceptions—like playing for the Washington Nationals. Fewer jobs in professional sports come with lower expectations than playing for D.C.'s resident toxic asset. They're a lock for last place every year and you'll rarely cross home plate on the field, but you'll be scoring left and right when you're off it. Finding someone who doesn't want to round the bases with a professional athlete is even harder to find than a "die hard" Nationals fan. 

PERSONAL TRAINING

Although "doctor" often tops many sexiest job lists, it would definitely rank near the bottom of any low-stress babe magnet career list because, despite all the golfing, you're occasionally responsible for saving lives. You also need to bust your hump for eight years in medical school just to open up shop, and you'll constantly have the specter of a malpractice suit hanging over your head. If you're looking for a career as a health practitioner, consider being a personal trainer. It's a profession which has appeared on multiple sexiest job polls with a hell of a lot less stress, but nearly equal babe-pulling qualities. As long as you don't consider standing around and counting all day particularly stressful activities, you should be able to score loads of undisciplined, middle-aged, neglected housewives and divorcées with this mind-softening gig.

COWBOY

When was the last time you saw a cowboy at a bar complaining about meeting a deadline or his pain in the ass boss? Actually, when was the last time you even saw a real cowboy, period? Who even knew America had cowboys anymore? The ladies, that's who. According to Salary.com the childhood dream job of "cowboy" made the cut as one of the top ten sexiest occupations. For lots of fresh air, a cool sounding job title, and more ass than you can shake a Stetson at, look to the wild, wild west for a beneficial career change.

TV PERSONALITY/METEOROLOGIST

It's no surprise that "TV personality/news anchor" showed up on Career Builder's sexy job list. You just can't underestimate the impact that being on television everyday has on women. Being a news anchor will undoubtedly be a turn-on for some ladies, but others might shy away from someone whose job is to deliver economic doom-and-gloom 24/7. (You'll also be required to—gasp—pay attention to the news.) 

Which is why we'd advise to go the even easier route: TV weatherman. Think about it: What other gig pays handsomely, but has zero repercussions for being completely wrong all the time? The dude who says it'll be sunny, only to misread weather patterns and miss that tornado heading for your town—that's who. The best part of this job is if you blow off checking out the readings on the Doppler radar because of the wild threesome with weather groupies the night before, it's no big deal. You could always just look out the window and take a shot at the forecast. No one's expecting you to be right anyway.  

BARTENDER

In 2007, "bartender" was voted the sexiest occupation across the board for both men and women. How could it not be? Night after night, you're standing behind the dimly lit bar in a position of power surrounded by horny people who are finding you more and more attractive as you load them up with drinks. Even better, it's usually louder than Don Cherry's wardrobe at most bars, so you won't need to put together coherent sentences to impress the females. Just smile, mutter something about them being hot, and nod your head. They'll eat it up! If you can deal with the anxiety of trying to remember the difference between a Bay Breeze and a Sex on the Beach, this job should have you sleeping late, making off-the-books cash money, and tapping a lot more than just kegs. 


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Monday, April 27, 2009

I Was Hitler's Secretary .... Guess Who ?

Hitler's secretary, Christa Schroeder, with Hitler, 1939

WHO WAS CHRISTA SCHROEDER?

Working as Hitler’s secretary from 1933 until his suicide in 1945, the young Christa Schroeder never knew a private life. In 1938, she became engaged to Yugoslav diplomat Lav Alkonic. When Hitler refused to give his blessing to the liaison, Schroeder raised the possibility of leaving his employment. Hitler replied: ‘I would know how to prevent that.’ The engagement was broken off in 1941.
After the collapse of the Third Reich Schroeder was arrested by the US Army Counter-Intelligence Corps (CIC). Initially convicted as a war criminal, she was later reclassified as a collaborator and released days later, on 12 May 1948. Dr Karl Brandt, formerly Hitler’s emergency surgeon, described Schroeder under interrogation at Nuremberg: ‘Clever, critical and intelligent, she had a turnover of work which no other secretary matched, often spending several days and nights almost without a break taking dictation. She would always express her opinion openly...and in time became sharply critical of Hitler himself. Her boldness undoubtedly put her life in grave danger.’ In civilian life, she worked in the metal and insurance industries, retiring at 59, and living in Munich until her death, aged 76, on 28 June 1984.
Christa Schroeder was never a National Socialist in the true sense: ‘I was told I had to join the Party since only NSDAP members could be employees. I suppose I went a few times to the big assemblies, but I felt nothing in common with the speakers or the masses and I must have appeared terribly stupid.’
An alternative view of her appears in a US Army intelligence report of May 22 1945: ‘Mr Albrecht… interrogated her. She was rather stupid, dumpy and an ardent Nazi.’ Schroeder wrote of this event: ‘After the interrogation was over, Lt Albrecht...had a very friendly conversation with me. When I expressed regret that my whole life, all the years, had been for nothing, he replied, “No, everything has a purpose, nothing is wasted”.’


As Hitler's right-hand woman, Christa Schroeder had a unique insight into his intelligence, his temper, and his quirks. In this exclusive extract from her memoir, she describes her time at his side

When replying to a tiny job advertisement in the German newspaper, Münchner Neuesten Nachrichten, I had no premonition that it was to determine the future course of my life.
It was 1930, and aged 22, I had just arrived in Munich from Bavaria, eager to explore a new part of Germany. The post was a secretarial one and I was invited by an unknown organisation, the 'Supreme SA leadership (OSAF)' to present myself in the Schellingstrasse. In this almost unpopulated street the Reich leadership of the NSDAP, the Nazi Party, was located at No. 50 on the fourth floor of a building at the rear.

In the past, the man who would later become Adolf Hitler's official photographer, Heinrich Hoffmann, had made his scurrilous films in these rooms. The former photographic studio was now occupied by the Supreme SA-Führer, Franz Pfeffer von Salomon and his chief of staff, Dr Otto Wagener. Later I learned that I had been the last of 87 applicants. That the post was awarded to me, someone who was neither a member of the NSDAP nor interested in politics nor aware of whom Adolf Hitler might be, must have resulted purely from my being a 22-year-old with proven shorthand/typing experience who could furnish good references.
Once Hitler had become Reich Chancellor, stenotypists were requested to volunteer for the NSDAP Liaison Staff in Berlin. In March 1933 I arrived in the capital.

Tea with the Führer

After seizing power, Hitler had installed himself in Berlin's Radziwill Palace. His study, the library, his bedroom and later, alongside it, Eva Braun's apartment were all on the first floor.
Directly opposite the door to Hitler's study a couple of steps led to a long corridor, beyond which was the so-called adjutancy wing with the rooms for Hitler's aides. The first room was the Staircase Room (Treppenzimmer), where at least one of us would be permanently on standby, regardless of the hour, should Hitler need to give a dictation. Then came the rooms of Julius Schaub, Hitler's rather unprepossessing factotum, Dr Dietrich (Reich press officer), Sepp Dietrich (commander of SS-Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler, Hitler's personal bodyguard unit) and Hitler's chief adjutant, Wilhelm Brückner.
If one descended the staircase beyond these one came to the so-called ladies' saloon, actually the reception room, to the left of which wing doors, always pegged open, led into the film room. To the right was the Bismarck Room, also known as the smoking room. The dining hall was next to it and annexed to the Winter Garden, which ended in a fine semicircular path. Breakfast was taken in the Winter Garden and in the afternoon Hitler held most of his talks strolling its length.
One day Hitler happened to pass the Staircase Room at teatime, saw us sitting there and asked if he might join us. This hour of easy chatter was so much to his liking that he later came to tea almost daily. The Staircase Room was a place where he felt unburdened and I always had the impression that what he said there came from a secret memory box which at all other times he kept locked shut.
He would often recall pranks played in late childhood, for example, the time as a 12 year-old when he wagered his classmates that he could make the girls laugh during a religious service. He won the bet by intently brushing his non-existent moustache whenever they glanced at him.
He also spoke of his mother, to whom he was very attached, and of his father's violence: 'I never loved my father,' he used to say, 'but feared him. He was prone to rages and would resort to violence. My poor mother would then always be afraid for me. When I read Karl May once that it was a sign of bravery to hide one's pain, I decided that when he beat me the next time I would make no sound. When it happened – I knew my mother was standing anxiously at the door – I counted every stroke out loud. Mother thought I had gone mad when I reported to her with a beaming smile, "Thirty-two strokes father gave me!" From that day I never needed to repeat the experiment, for my father never beat me again.'

Hitler's tailor

For Hitler, clothing was purely functional. He hated trying things on. Since he made lively hand and arm movements to emphasise points he was making in his speeches, and also liked to extend his body while strolling in conversation, especially when the subject was one which excited him and which he did mainly by raising the right shoulder, he had an aversion to a close fit. His tailor had to shape all uniforms and suits for comfort in this regard. This occasional raising of the right shoulder may have been due to the left shoulder being stiff. During the putsch of November 9 1923 Hitler fell to the pavement, dislocating his left shoulder. Dr Walter Schultze, the leader of the SA medical corps, could not convince Hitler to have it X-rayed. Hitler feared being 'bumped off' at the hospital. The shoulder was therefore never properly fixed and remained stiff ever afterwards.

'Imagine my face without a moustache!'

I found Hitler's eyes expressive. They could look friendly and warm-hearted, or express indignation, indifference and disgust. In the last months of the war they lost expressiveness and became a more watery, pale light blue, and rather bulging. One could always tell his mood from his voice. It could be unusually calm, clear and convincing, but also excited, increasing in volume and becoming overwhelmingly aggressive. Often it would be ice-cold. 'Ice-cold' or 'Now I am ice-cold' were much-used phrases of his. 'I am totally indifferent to what the future will think of the methods which I have to use,' I heard frequently. 'Ruthless' (rücksichtslos) was common in his vocabulary: 'Force it through ruthlessly, whatever the cost!'
Hitler's nose was very large and fairly pointed. I do not know whether his teeth were ever very attractive, but by 1945 they were yellow and he had bad breath. He should have grown a beard to hide his mouth. During the years of his friendship with Ada Klein, who worked on the Nazi party newspaper, Völkischer Beobachter, he told her: 'Many people say I should shave off the moustache, but that is impossible. Imagine my face without a moustache!' and at that held his hand below his nose like a plate. 'My nose is much too big. I need the moustache to relieve the effect!'

His face turned to stone'

Hitler set great store on hygiene. He bathed daily, often several times a day, particularly after meetings and speeches, from which he would return sweating. Harsh and inflexible as Hitler could be with others, he did not exempt himself. He would reject tiredness and would call upon endless reserves of energy. No wonder that the trembling left hand was such an embarrassment to him. The knowledge from 1944 onwards that he was no longer master of his own body was a heavy burden. When surprised visitors saw his trembling hand, he would cover it instinctively with the other. Yet to the end he remained master of his emotions. Should bad news arrive during a private conversation the only clue would be a movement of his jaw. I remember him receiving the report about the destruction of the Möhne and Eder dams, which flooded much of the Ruhr. As he read it his face turned to stone, but that was all. Nobody could have gauged how deeply the blow had struck him. It would be hours or days before he would refer to such an event, and then give full vent to his feelings.

Memory man

From his youth onwards Hitler had a great lust to read. He told me one day that during his youth in Vienna he had read through all 500 volumes at the city reference library. I was always amazed at how precisely he could describe any geographical region or speak about art history or hold forth on very complicated technical matters. In the same way he could describe with amazing detail how theatres, churches, monasteries and castles were built. The Oberbürgermeister of Munich, with whom Hitler enjoyed discussing the expansion and beautification of the city, related how surprised he was when Hitler recalled the minute details of a conversation they had had months previously. Hitler had reproached him: 'Six months ago I told you I wanted it done this way!' and then repeated word for word their conversation, a fact confirmed by architects Speer and Giesler post-war.
It is confirmed that from his youth onwards Hitler had the gift of an unusual memory, but his secret was that he trained and expanded it every day. He said that when he was reading he tried to grasp the essence of a thing and fix it in his mind. It was his practice or method during the tea hours and when chatting at the hearth over a subject he had been reading about to repeat it several times in order to anchor it more firmly in his memory. Despite the effort Hitler made to surprise people with his rich trove of knowledge, and to show them his superiority, he made sure he never let them know the sources of this knowledge. He was expert at convincing his listeners that everything he said was the result of his own deliberations and critical thinking. Nearly everybody was convinced that Hitler was a profound thinker, and a wonderfully sharp, analytical spirit.
Once I began working for him, I wanted to get the thing straight. One day Hitler launched into a philosophical dissertation on one of his favourite themes. To my astonishment I realised that he was reciting a page from Schopenhauer, which I had just finished reading myself. Summoning all my courage I drew the fact to his attention. Hitler, taken a little aback, threw me a glance and explained in fatherly tones: 'Do not forget, my child, that all knowledge comes from others and that every person only contributes a minute piece to the whole.'

Dictation with the dictator

Back in the Staircase Room I would wait on standby until a valet shouted through the wing door: 'The chief is asking you to come for dictation!' He would open the door to the library and shut it as he withdrew, hanging a notice on the latch: 'Do not disturb.' As a rule Hitler would be standing at or bent over his desk, working on the punch lines for a speech, for example. Often he would appear not to notice my presence. Before the dictation I would not exist for him, and I doubt whether he saw me as a person when I was at my typist's desk. A while would pass in silence. Then he would close in on the typewriter and begin to dictate calmly and with expansive gestures. Gradually, getting into his stride, he would speak faster. Without pause one sentence would then follow another while he strolled around the room.
Occasionally he would halt, lost in thought, before Lenbach's portrait of Bismarck, gathering himself as it were before resuming his wandering. His face would become florid and the anger would shine in his eyes. He would stand rooted to the spot as though confronting the particular enemy he was imagining. It would certainly have been easier to have taken this dictation in shorthand but Hitler did not want this. Apparently he felt himself as if on wings when he heard the rhythmic chatter of the typewriter keys.
The typewriter had its own mechanical noise. As Hitler would never be seen wearing spectacles in public, typewriters were later manufactured with 12mm characters so that he could read the script in public without glasses. The 'Silenta' brand machines had the advantage of typing quietly but the keys tended to tangle if one typed over a certain speed. Since Hitler did not – or did not want to – notice this and kept on dictating, this was naturally very unsettling for the typist and often made her very nervous. One became anxious that while unscrambling the keys a sentence might be missed and the text would not flow.
On one occasion I did not like the way he had phrased something. When I dared mention it, he looked at me, neither angry nor offended, and said: 'You are the only person I allow to correct me!' From the outbreak of war Hitler would never deliver a speech without a manuscript. 'I prefer to speak, and I speak best, from the top of my head,' he told me, 'but now we are at war I must weigh carefully every word, for the world is watching and listening. Were I to use the wrong word in a spontaneous moment of passion, that could have severe implications!'

The smoking ban

The day at FHQ Wolfsschanze had been as dull as any other. After dinner I saw a film in the hope of relieving my boredom, then I went to the officers' mess from where Hitler's manservant winkled me out just as I was getting comfortable. In the hope that the tea session would perhaps not last too long, I promised to return to the mess afterwards. Torn from a convivial environment, I now came to a Führer who wore a frown. I knew that he would be in a bad mood, for the situation at the Russian Front was not good.
Today's theme was that old chestnut, smoking. He would start out with special reference to narrowing of the arteries caused by smoking. How awful a smoker's stomach must look. Smokers lacked consideration for others, forcing them to breathe in polluted air. He had really toyed with the idea of outlawing smoking anywhere in Germany. The campaign would begin by having a death's head printed on every cigarette pack. 'If I should ever discover,' he often said, emphasising the depth of his antagonism to smoking, 'that Eva were secretly smoking, then that would be grounds for me to separate from her immediately and for ever.'
At that time I was a heavy smoker. Hitler said that because tobacco products were distributed to them freely, even young soldiers who had not been smokers previously had now taken up the habit.
They should be given chocolate, not cigarettes. Everybody nodded in agreement, but I, already in a rather spirited frame of mind from my visit to the officers' mess, chipped in and declared: 'Ah, mein Führer, let the poor boys (I might even have used the word 'swine' here) have this pleasure, they don't get any others!' Ignoring my idiotic outburst, Hitler went on to explain how nicotine and alcohol ruined people's health and addled the mind. Now I brought up the big gun and said, referring to photographer Heinrich Hoffmann, 'One cannot really say that, mein Führer. Hoffmann smokes and drinks all day yet is the most agile man in the shop.' At that Hitler clammed up.
Without another word he rose quickly and took his leave – 'ice-cold' and with an aggrieved expression, from which I finally saw what I had done.
Next afternoon when I inquired of the manservant in what mood the boss found himself today, Hans Junge gave a colleague and myself a long look and said that tea would be taken today without the ladies. Albert Bormann had been told to inform us officially. When I asked him, Bormann admitted in embarrassment that the boss was annoyed with me and would not be requiring the ladies' company at tea.
I no longer existed for him. It was to be many months before Hitler forgave my faux pas.

'You are sentimental'

In 1978, Henriette Schirach [the wife of Baldur Benedikt von Schirach, head of the Hitler youth and Reich Governor of Vienna during the Nazi occupation] reminded me of an encounter she had with Hitler on Good Friday, 1943. I remember that evening Eva Braun had sat at Hitler's right before she went upstairs, and to the left of Henriette.
While the other guests were talking, an argument developed between Henriette and Hitler, the subject of which was an occurrence in Amsterdam a few days previously. She had been awoken at night by an unusually loud disturbance and had watched from a hotel window as some weeping women were ordered forward across a bridge and disappeared into the night.
The next day she learned from her friends that this had been a deportation of Jewish women. She promised to bring the matter to the attention of Hitler, which she was now doing. Hitler answered her in a very brusque manner: 'Be silent, Frau von Schirach, you understand nothing about it. You are sentimental. What does it matter to you what happens to female Jews? Every day tens of thousands of my most valuable men fall while the inferior survive. In that way the balance in Europe is being undermined,' and here he moved his cupped hands up and down like a pair of scales.
'And what will become of Europe in one hundred, in one thousand years?' In a tone which made it evident that he considered the matter closed, he declared: 'I am committed by duty to my people alone, to nobody else!'


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5 Hot Celebrities Bare All For Allure

Allure asked five celebrities to bare it all for the camera. Learn what they had to say about self-esteem, their bodies, and stripping down; for more of revealing interviews with them, pick up the May issue of Allure, on newsstands April 21.



PADMA LAKSHMI

ALLURE: What did you do to prepare for the shoot?
PADMA LAKSHMI: "I exercised a little bit extra, but I actually think I look better when I have a little bit of weight on—my breasts are fuller, and I'm curvier than when I'm at my thinnest."

ALLURE: Are you confident about your body?
PL: "Yes; I like the way I look. I think I look better now than I did in my 20s, because I'm more confident about my body—and I don't want to look like anyone but myself."

ALLURE: Do you sleep naked?
PL: "I tend to sleep in the nude. I'm an innately tactile person and a very sensual-leaning woman. You have to use the word 'leaning' or it sounds like I'm boasting! When I'm in my own private space, I do spend time with very little on."



LYNN COLLINS


ALLURE: Why did you agree to pose naked?
LYNN COLLINS: "Women with confidence in their bodies are the sexiest thing, so I put on my cape of courage and did it. It was quite liberating!"

ALLURE: What body part were you nervous to expose?
LC: "He shot that place where your butt meets your thigh. It's a special place on a woman; it's a highly erogenous zone, but it's one of the hardest places to get in shape."

ALLURE: How do love scenes in films compare to our shoot?
LC: "It's different when you're working with another person, for sure. By yourself, there is a certain amount of security involved, and you feel like you have more power."



SHARON LEAL


ALLURE: What did you do to prepare for the shoot?
SHARON LEAL: "At first, I was flattered to be asked, and then I thought, Wow, can I do it? I tried not to have my late-night French-fry fix, and I tried to mentally prepare and keep the fear at bay."

ALLURE: What was the worst part of the shoot?
SL: "The ache in my hip from holding the pose."

ALLURE: What happened when you dropped the robe?
SL: "I just breathed and said to myself, 'I'm comfortable, I'm beautiful; I'm comfortable, I'm beautiful,' until I didn't have to say that anymore.... It's liberating, but posing once may be enough."



CHELSEA HANDLER


ALLURE: Why did you agree to pose naked?
CH: "I like being naked, and I like Allure, so I figured, Why not?"

ALLURE: What was it like on the set?
CH: "I think it was easy—you're naked a couple times a day, so I think it would be easy for most women."

ALLURE: What body parts are you most proud of?
CH: "My boobs are good. They're real and perky. Even if you can't see them, the important thing is that I know about them, and the guys I've slept with know about them."



ELIZA DUSHKU


ALLURE: Are you comfortable with nudity?
ELIZA DUSHKU: "I grew up with three brothers, and I was never shy about covering up. It got to the point where my mom was like, 'OK, honey, it's time to put some clothes on now.'"

ALLURE: What about these days?
ED: "I'll strip down to my underwear and my Ugg boots when I eat lunch in my trailer."

ALLURE: How would you compare this to filming a love scene?
ED: "Love scenes are much more multidimensional, because often you have two people who have just met and you're rolling around, and it's more awkward than when you're posing alone."


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